Total Castration! Interview #1 GREAT FALLS

Great Falls have a great bio on their Facebook page it goes like this:

A couple of us were in Playing Enemy. That worked out for awhile. One of us is in Jesu. That works out well. One of us played in both Kiss It Goodbye and Undertow and was the roadie for Deadguy during their peak. Another one of us played in Black Noise Cannon. Their last show was with Corrupted. One of us was also in a band that played mostly Diamondhead covers. Amazing. All three of us play very aggressive music that is not as hard to understand as some people like to say. We like anger. We like volume. We like slow music and we like fast music. One of us is also a professional writer. That person did not write this.

Demian Johnston - Vocals/Guitars
Shane Mehling - Bass
Phil Petrocelli - Drums

That kinda says it all, but on the other hand let me tell you that these guys are insanely talented and with a pedigree like that you know they strictly rock. Great Falls music is not normal; Demian and Shane rarely match up notes as a typical Metal band would. Demian plays a 6 string tuned oddly to drop A or B and with the 2 top strings tuned open (I don’t even know how one would do that but it does sound wicked). Too weird and noisy to be Metal and too heavy to be Punk, these guys are EXACTLY the kind of music I like. Great Falls is pretty hard to pin down, it’s really not comparable to anything else out there; Gaza meets early Swans meets a noisier, less loopy Zeni Geva maybe? As if that’s even possible...

Seattle has an excellent scene right now and these guys are firmly entrenched in both the Metal/Hardcore and Noise scenes.

Full disclosure: I am Great Falls’ recording engineer. Phil mixes and masters and it is an amazing working relationship. These are three great guys with good taste and they are hilarious to boot. At one point I got a chance to help them piece together their cover of the Robocop Soundtrack. This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and I’ve played a metal show during the opening ceremony of the Nebula Awards where Harlan Ellison made fun of my hair.

I just got done engineering their new record and I can tell you from the rough mixes this new record is going to kill it. Kill it dead.

Gearwise these dudes are no slouches: Shane is a monster, pulling out bass tones that would make lesser men think they broke their amp. He has a 4 string Music Man plugged into a Rusty Box leading into an Akai E2 Head Rush and then into a Gallien-Krueger 1001RB on top of an old Ampeg 8/10 with only one wheel. I usually mic him up with a Audio Technica 4033 and a Heil Pro40.

Demian has a pretty beat up Gibson Les Paul Studio with only the bridge pickup remaining. His homemade pedalboard is big and heavy but not expansive and showy, it includes some possibly homemade distortion boxes, a Boss chorus pedal some random digital delays and another Akai Head Rush. He splits his signal into 2 hundred watt amps usually a Marshall JCM 800 and a Mesa Dual Rectifier but he has switched the Mesa out for a Verellen Skyhammer which to me has more low end and a clearer tone. These heads sit side by side on two 4/12 cabs a Marshall 1960 and an 80’s vintage Ampeg, filled with Celestions I believe. My go to mics for this guy is a Royer 121 and AKG 414 combination on the same speaker.

Phil is well known as one of the best heavy drummers in town and his gear is no joke. A powder blue 1990 Yamaha Rock Tour Custom kit with a 24” kick, a 14” rack and a 16’ floor tom. I’m pretty sure he owns more than one of these and has more pieces than he plays. Hes has lots of snares but the one we recorded with was a random Pearl, I believe. He also has hella Paiste cymbals which he swears by as you will see. When we were recording he re-headed with Aquarians which help give him his signature dry tone. He is  a partner in a local gear rental company that has the best of the best for heavy rock. Believe me, you would be impressed.

Let’s see what these dudes had to say when we sat down backstage at what might possibly be their last show at the soon to be defunct but legendary Funhouse in the shadow of the space needle...

(As always, opinions of myself and those being interviewed are just that, opinions and we all know that opinions can’t hurt you. We all have different tastes and experiences so please don’t sue or troll ok? Well thought out discourse is most definitely appreciated. Thanks!)

Jeffery- Excellent, this being my first interview let’s start with a stupid question: What was your first set up, what was the first shit you had?
Shane- I will go. Oh God, I believe my first setup was a Samick bass, which I believe is the name of a bass?
Demain- Ergonomic I believe?
Shane - No no that was the upgrade (laughter) I had a Samick  bass. It was white and it came with a 1/10 or probably a 1/12 Crate combo (more laughter) and I played that for the first 3 years of my bass playing life.
Jeffery- Heavy, do you still have it?
Shane- I don’t remember... I got rid of my Crate so I could upgrade to whatever I brought out (to Seattle).
Demain- A Carvin.
Shane- A Carvin Red Eye. Awful. A 4/10 combo Carvin Red Eye which was unbelievably shitty.
Jeffery- Carvin makes some good gear but that is not one of them. That is not a piece of good gear...
Shane- Holy fuck... it overheated, it actually smoked, ha ha it smoked twice until it just busted on tour and I moved out here with it. (laughs) I moved out here with that and a sparkly green ergonomic Ibanez Sound Gear.
Jeffery- Hahaha oh no!
Shane- And I essentially just like, showed up dickless.
Phil- That is a Me-tal bass, an ibanez soundgear? Me-TAL.
Shane- It was fucking pathetic!
Jeffery- Ibanez is like everyone's first bass practically.
Shane- Yeah & you know, and it kills me, I bought it because it had such a thin neck, I thought oh this is a thin neck i can totally shred on it. (laughter all around) I was like who am I fucking kidding “Oh I can shred like Geddy like rage! And like the first bass I had, someone painted it for me.
Jeffery- Painted your Samick?
Shane- Gave it a custom paint job and I can't remember what stickers I had on it , but they were bad. and then I sold it right before I moved out here for 5 dollars.
Jeffery- 5 Bucks?
Shane- It worked completely fine.
Jeffery- I thought you were gonna say 500 and i was gonna be all proud of you. Like you totally got rid of it to some jerk ha ha gas money.
Shane- 5 bucks, so  that’s the history of all my items.

Jeffery- Anyone else wanna go?
Demian- Yeah, well if I was going to start with my first set up in my whole life, I started playing bass and my very first ever set up was the first bass my mom bought me, doing like layaway for like 8 months to a year or something was a burnt orange Yamaha bass.
Jeffery- Was it a cool one?
Demian- I mean I used it all through Undertow it was the bass I used I got to the point where I had no tuning pegs on it I had to use a wrench to tune it (chuckles) instead of the strap pegs on the back I had these two giant industrial eyelets and I screwed those into the bass and I mean... Eventually I just left it in one of the houses we lived in.
Phil- It was that good.
Demian- Yeah, I had the same 1/12 Crate combo also purchased by the same small music store that my mom got the bass at.
Jeffery- Hey man that’s how it works... I’ve never had anything that good  when I was a kid, my first kit was a Royce... (turns to Phil) So, what was your first kit?
Phil- I still have my first kit actually, it was an Olive badge Ludwig... “The Sound of Rock” (laughter abounds) we got it used out of probably like a Little Nickel or a Back Pages sort of thing. I paid for about half of it and my parents paid the other part, to keep me off the drugs...
Jeffery- Ha ha did it work?
Phil- (chuckles) Yep, sure worked. But the  funny thing was that the kit was basically the same kit that was in Pink Floyd “Live at Pompei”  
Jeffery- What?!? Did you think you were really cool because of that? (everybody laughs)
Phil- No I didn’t see “Live” until ten years later... it’s not THE kit but it’s like the same set up. And, it came with 2 kick drums but my parents didn’t allow us to bring the second kit home because they thought it would be twice as loud!
Jeffery- Oh ha ha so you just lost out on the kick drum?
Phil- Lost out on a matching kick drum probably like consecutive serial numbers
Jeffery- And it’s probably worth like tons of money now too
Phil- Sure and then the more Rush records I listened to the more rototoms I added... that fucking bullshit.
Jeffery- Uh huh, uh huh.
Phil- I still have that kit and it’s a hell of a jazz kit.
Jeffery- Man it’s weird that you were a Rush fan... (looks ironically at Shane and Demain)
Phil- Well I was until I learned learned to play ha ha, that and my Zeppelin records.
Shane- Well this isn’t super ‘gear’ but tell him about your stick bag
Phil- Well, I still have the same stick bag  that I  got from the day I purchased my first kit
Jeffery- What?!?! Same stick bag.
Phil- Exact same one. (laughs)
Shane- And... what’s on that stick bag?
Phil- One of the original fuckin’ Black Sabbath pins. Pretty sure I bought that pin when I was like 12 or 13 and they literally... don’t make em like that anymore. (room erupts)
Jeffery- (wiping tears from his eyes) Oh man that turned out to be a great question! Let’s talk about what you guys are playing right now is there any wish list that you guys with you had now?
Demain- I don’t know I’m kinda lucky to have as nice of gear as I do have. Basically, when I joined Kiss it Goodbye I inherited all of their guitar players gear which was the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier  with a 4/12 and the JCM800 and 4/12 I got both of those with the 4/12’s for $1200
Jeffery- Oh that’s a great deal that’s like half price...
Demain- Yeah so when I started playing guitar more seriously I started off with great stuff, and because of that  I don’t think there was a lot of desire to get anything else.
Phil- “Look what I got it’s good enough!”
Demain- (agrees) Yeah, kinda.
Jeffery- Is that the same Gibson?
Demain- Actually yeah, that’s Keith’s old Gibson studio and I have a double cutaway studio. I mean those guitars are playable, they play well and they sound good but they’re not ‘nice’ guitars. I have no desire to have a nice guitar.
Jeffery- Yeah, I’m the same way.
Demain- I mean I kinda don’t want a nice guitar because I’ll fuck it up, or break it , lose it or it’ll get stolen or I’ll sell it and I’ll regret it like some asshole would, regret it I mean not sell it... So I don’t really require stuff. I mean, there are times when I think I want a Model T and then I play one and I’m like, “Maybe I don’t’.” You know? Or, “How do these people make em sound rad?” cause I certainly don’t know how. So I don’t know, I don’t really covet any gear. I’m glad I have the stuff I have even though it’s constantly in a state of breaking.
Jeffery- Ha ha yeah well you have three  heads so you can just rotate them in right?
Demain- Well the dual rectifier is broken...
Jeffery Yeah that’s where I was going,  you rotated the Verellen in and finally got a chance to to like get a decent tone off of it cause you actually tried right? That’s what it seemed like to me.
Demain- Yeah it was either make that thing work for me or come up with money to fix  the other one and coming up with money isn’t an option for me ha ha so...
Jeffery- I mean all 3 amps are killer but...that’s the key to any amp is like if it’s the only one you have you make it work for you. Does anybody else have a wish list? Phil, you have everything anybody could have (he owns a gear rental business).
Shane- You want more cymbals?
Phil-Yeah well the kit I’m playing now, the one we recorded with is a Yamaha from the 90’s and it’s awesome, those for me in terms of like, being loud and somewhat accurate in terms of tuning, all those things that are important-
Jeffery- And they are big too!
Phil- And big... they are worthy of being knocked around, I think those are pretty much the pinnacle for me, I have a variety of things but those are the best, those are the Tour Customs which are killer.
Jeffery- I was going to ask you about that, at one point you said hey, I’m going with these Yamaha’s and I don’t remember why you said that, you say someone was playing them or something?
Phil- Well, yeah man, after the ‘Sound of Rock’ Ludwig John Bonham thing I just discovered Tommy Aldridge and he always played Yamaha drums. And I was like oh my can I learn how to play 2 bass drums? Heh heh I was terrified. That motherfucker (Tommy) is old, he is into Jesus, and he is still amazing. He played in Whitesnake and he is still amazing.
Jeffery- I know man.
Phil- He totally rules. (laughter)
Jeffery- I’m glad you are man enough to admit that!
Phil- The guy is a fucking great drummer! And he’s been drumming that style since the 70’s... he’s the one, if like Dio played drums he’d be Tommy Aldridge
Jeffery- You heard it here first ha ha ...Or last if you read ‘Modern Drummer’ (more laughs)
Phil- I mean, he’s a billion years old...
Jeffery- No, that’s an apt analogy.
Phil- He’s fucking amazing. So he turned me onto these Yamahas and that’s been it for me. I could always use more cymbals though.
Jeffery- We knew he was going to say that. Tell me about Paiste, how do you pronounce that?
Phil- I say PIESTEE I think that’s how they say it in Switzerland.
Jeffery- I’ve never heard it pronounced correctly by a Swiss person.
Phil- I used to only play one but I’ve never gone back.  Never gone back.
Jeffery- I have to admit something: back in the late 80’s/90’s I fuckin hated those cymbals, I equated them with Butt Rock.
Phil-Yeah.
Jeffery- I used to be like fuck that, Zildjians only....or Sabians except they break all the time.
Phil- It’s good until you break a Zildjian and go to the store and try to find one that sounds exactly the same. A Paiste wherever you are, that model, sounds exactly the fuckin same no matter where in the world you are.
Jeffery- I think that's kinda what I hated about them, they are made to sound a certain way but for me, I was so anti Hair Metal that it was like, “fuck that I’m not playing them!” and now, of course, I have half and half cause they rule.
Phil- Well I already owned up to the Tommy Aldridge so you know where I was on that! (Room full of laughter) If you ever get a chance to see the professionally shot footage of Motley Crue at the US festival in ‘82 before the heroin before all the bullshit
Jeffery- That was the Hair Metal day? That’s how I heard about Motley Crue actually!
Phil- That's the same show where Ozzy came out dressed like a Witchdoctor and shit? And what was that mother fucker playing? A full set of 2002’s! Anyway you guys should talk about things with strings on em...
Jeffery- Hahaha no, that’s the thing, when people hear me say I wanna talk about gear I think they just assume oh we just wanna talk about amps and shit but I’m a drummer too why the hell would you not want to talk about drums?
Shane- That WAS some really impressive drum talk. 

Jeffery- Shane you got any wishlist, you like what you are playing now?
Shane- Yeah uh, I always wanted one of those Music Man’s that had like two of those pickups...
Jeffery- How does that work is it just twice as gnarly?
Shane- Fuck I don't know I just want one with 2 of those pickups.
Jeffery- Can you play em at the same time? Those are humbuckers right?
Shane- I don’t know I just want them because I play with my fingers and it’s really important for me to have like areas to put my thumb. (laughter)
Demain- Maybe you just need something to put your thumb on?
Shane- I need a new area to put my thumb! So I guess that’s it.
Jeffery- Ha ha that’s what she said... (no laughs)
Shane- Ha, well, I’ll tell you on that Samic there was P Bass pickups you know, and they didn’t really work to play with your fingers but the other thing is there was this thing real close to the neck and it was high up and I was like, oh my god you are supposed to play like this (makes difficult arm placement movement with his arm) and it was just like gugugug and it was like  awful! (huge laughs) who thought to put this here?
Jeffery-Well that’s the problem with playing with your fingers if you play really hard it just ends up clacking on the pickups so you gotta figure how the fuck to make that work
Shane- Yeah and that’s kinda why I want that extra shit, and one other thing is I want is, where I play which is over the pickup, of I try to play a little faster I usually have my thumb on the pickup then I move my fingers a little lower where the strings are more taught so I’d like that other pickup maybe that I could put my thumb a little higher...
Jeffery- Well you could always get a jazz bass thumb rest but it might sound better with the pickup underneath it-
Shane- Yeah I could but with that other pick up  it would just look so fucking awesome ha ha ha
Jeffery- Yeah I know man!
Shane- The Music Man, I’ve had it for so many years, eight, nine years maybe and I’ve kicked the shit out of it, I’ve beaten it up and it still keeps in tune so well, and I’ve gone through like seven back up basses... but I’ve broken a lot of basses too.
Jeffery- I’ve noticed a lot of mother fuckers in Hardcore bands they move up into a Music Man and they just stay there.
Shane- Music Man’s you can do anything, I’ve done so much shit to it and it fucking stuck with me and I appreciate it so much! (that night he dug a bunch of plaster from the club ceiling with it’s headstock) You know I think about that other one with the other pick up and it’s like ditching your wife for some other girl, it would be so awesome but until it dies, I won’t do it.
Jeffery- Ok let me ask you one more thing Shane: Someone once described your bass sound as sounding “broken”
Shane- HA HA HA
Jeffery- Just kidding that was me (laughs) but what do you got you got the Rusty Box and you have that 1001rb or whatever which I can’t believe you get so much damn volume out of a newer amp I mean do you just plug it in I mean you don’t have any secrets? You just have the Rusty Box and turn it up? It must be because it’s a 1000  because the 800’s just don’t have the volume, they are not loud enough and you are like fuck it and you just blow people’s faces off.
Shane- I have nothing going on you know... Again the idea is I have no idea at all ha ha. I got the Rusty Box because I heard about it and I had extra money and I bought it. I heard it was kinda what I wanted. I always wanted... there’s actually this record, Season to Risk ‘In a Perfect World’ which the bass tone on that, it’s one of my favorite records-
Demain- Recorded by Albini I think... they are from Kansas City.
Jeffery- Oh yeah I know who Season to Risk is!
Shane-The bass tone on that was... It’s weird because I wasn’t really in to Am Rep-
Jeffery- That’s about all I was into heh heh literally almost all we were about.
Shane- Yeah even though I lived right next to Chicago I missed out on it.
Jeffery- And AmRep bands are all about burly bass tone.
Shane- I kinda wished that I had realized that, but Season to Risk had that super attacky bass and it was really percussive, and I never wanted to play with a pick, I always wanted to play with my fingers and I wanted that bass tone but I couldn’t get that bass tone with my fingers, I just couldn't do it! And I couldn't do it up until I got the Rusty Box honestly, like 4 years ago maybe?
Demain- When we were all in Playing Enemy together Andrew would help us out with our sounds and stuff and he kinda knew what Shane wanted. He knew that he wanted that kinda attack and he knew that without a pick it would be tough so we EQ’d that thing all sorts of crazy ways.
Shane- We would keep trying to add mids to that shot and it just never worked so not only has Rusty Box been completely reliable but it has been the secret to everything, and again I don’t know give me the amp and i turn them all to ten and I just start turning it down until it doesn’t feedback.
Jeffery- Ha ha see that is wise right there, if that’s how YOU do it, that’s how you do it.
Demain- You don’t start the other direction that doesn’t make any sense...
Jeffery- No! Honestly know where i start? Six. Heh heh heh cause then it’s 666 dude! isn’t that stupid? ha ha but that’s seriously how I start here and I’ll dial it back or forward, whatever fuckin works.

Shane- Just one other thing about that, I play with my fingers and I‘m the bass player in like a fairly aggressive metal band where Demian is either tuned down below me or often times plays lower that I play and i think I just always wanted enough of a tone to give me enough room to do whatever I wanted.
Jeffery- It’s funny  you say that... as an analogy, we do the same thing in Android Hero, almost totally different kind of music in a way but we have a bass player with super tons of high end and then my shit is tuned down and a lot of times my sound is lower than his, you know? We were talking about that about how when Demian hits an A you are actually hitting your A string, not the low, low A which he’s hitting. I think what that does is adds interest. It piques people's ears because it sounds different.
Shane- I think that’s what I’ve always thought, it just gives it that. I could play what he is playing and it would just sound like a burlier version of the guitar or I could sound like something else. The last thing I want to do is just add to the guitar.
Jeffery- Yeah I know, if you are doing that why are you not just in like, well I was gonna say Cannibal Corpse but they actually have a bad-ass bass player! (Alex Webster)
Shane- yeah no hahaha!
Jeffery- That was a BAD analogy, that bass player is one of the best players in metal! He’s the original tarantula fingers you know, the first time I saw them I went that guy has 2 huge tarantula hands I swear he sprouts an extra pinky when he plays.
Shane- He’s incredible and he’s the head of that band. He’s always been the leader of the band.
Jeffery- With a bass player that good that’s what you do! That guys my favorite dude to watch in that band by far.
Shane- Yeah he’s fucking incredible!
Jeffery- Cool. This is already been a great interview super fun but before this band starts and we go watch them let’s talk about these Headrush pedals. Which... I just bought one for $150 used, like new with no shipping! 150 cash on the barrelhead. So now I’m one of you!
Phil- Didn’t spend all that 200 on the pedal?
Jeffery- No I’ve got that last 40 bux in my pocket and I’m going to drink it while I’m watching you guys (laughter) So anyway the Headrush is the first looper pedal that I went “that’s the one I have to have” because it actually sounds good or whatever, & Akai makes nothing else for live music except the Headrush?

Demain- When my version of the Headrush came out they also did like a weird distortion pedal and other weird pedals...
Jeffery- Oh  a crazy distortion pedal, i remember seeing that it had like many knobs?
Demain- yeah I don’t know how successful they were. but I think I was the first of all my friends to get a head rush and it’s only because we say Don Caballero after Ian Williams was the only guitar player, after the other guy left (Mike Banfield)  when they did their tour for ‘American Don’ it was the first time he had looper pedals.
Jeffery- And now he’s like king of that shit, he’s in Battles right?
Shane- Yeah and Storm & Stress. He had two Headrushes and he would build a sample on the first one and then move it to the second one and start building on the first one again and then he’d move that to the second one and he’d just keep moving and looping and... you can cancel your overdub on the Headrush
Jeffery- And just let it play?
Demain- Well you start your recording and then you can build on top of that, but if you hit record again without pressing play it goes back to the original loop, so he could do that and I don’t know how he would keep it in his mind, but he’d loop it on the second pedal then put something on top of it and then he would come back to a part... so all he’d have to do is turn off all the things he’d done.
Phil- Holy shit! And chewing gum and blowing bubbles (Laughter)
Demain- And drunk as shit ha ha
Phil- Actually blowing bubbles!
Demain- I got to play with Don Caballero with Undertow of all bands at the Velvet Elvis
Jeffery- I saw that show
Demain- for Don Caballero 2 of course
Jeffery- Which is my favorite record of theirs by far
Shane- Amazing
Demain- And then I saw them at the Storeroom (for the ‘What Burns Never Returns’ tour) and I was in the bathroom and he was there and he could barely stand up in front of the toilet and I was like, “Fuck man, this guy’s gonna get his ass kicked outta here!” and then he got up on stage and played like a fuckin maniac.
Jeffery- The first time I saw anyone use a loop pedal correctly (Joseph Arthur) it was one of those Boomerangs which to me was the first looping pedal that was any good cause it was fully 16 bit and had great sound and you could do multiple loops and he had 2 boomerangs one for his vocals and one for his acoustic guitar and he and you could build loops and save them to presets but that thing to me always seemed too big... that’s the reason I got rid of my Line 6 is because it gave me too many options you know?
Shane- It could do the backwards one...
Jeffery- Yeah which was cool but I was in BloodHag at the time and I was like all I need is a shitty analogue delay sound to do spacey Sci-fi sounds. I didn’t need to have a different setting for each song, which is how I am... too many buttons.
Demain- I had this Mr Echo delay pedal which is a really good delay pedal but it has this ‘slam’ button which is essentially the same as turning the time up and down real quick-
Jeffery- That’s kinda cool
Demain- That’s cool right? But the problem with it is once you use it once, that’s it you’re done
Jeffery- Cause it’s like one parameter it’s not like you leaning down and moving it with the music.
Demain- Exactly.
Shane- That’s the other thing cause you know, Demian is far more into Noise, and listening to noise and playing it live and for a while when we were doing Hemmingway (their noise band before Great Falls) we were both immersed in the noise scene and one my big problems with noise and you are listening to something and it’s really interesting and you’re really enjoying it and all of a sudden you hear that one thing and you go, “I know exactly what pedal that was, I know exactly what button they pushed” and all of a sudden you are just completely out of the music
Demain- Yeah and now they are just some dick with some gear you know?
Shane- We’ve talked about this before... it’s that kind of music where it’s so far away from a studio it’s a performance and you just want to enjoy it-
Jeffery- And let go that’s the whole point of noise as far as I’m concerned.
Shane- Exactly and as soon as you hear something that grounds you you’re out of the story.
Demain- I’m the same way with vocal samples, you know Nurses can do it great but in general whenever I hear a vocal sample I’m just like “oh that’s that ‘Golden Girls’ episode I really like” haha
Jeffery- That’s because there is nothing new under the sun, there is no good samples anymore they’ve all been taken.
Shane- Yeah exactly.
Jeffery- Thank you guys so much for doing this interview, I think it turned out well and I can’t wait to hear the record once it’s mixed. Let’s go watch Space Bag now!
Great Falls- Thank you!